Weapons watchdog receives Nobel Peace Prize

Ahmet Uzumcu, Director General of the Organisation for the Prohibiton of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), poses after being awarded the 2013 Peace Nobel Prize at the Oslo City Hall on Dec 10, 2013. -- PHOTO: AFP

OSLO, Norway (AP) - The head of a watchdog group that is trying to rid the world of chemical weapons has received the Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in the Norwegian capital.

Ahmet Uzumcu, director-general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, collected the award on Tuesday on behalf of the group.

Noting the organisation's role in leading the mission to destroy Syria's chemical weapons, Nobel committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland said the "anonymous inspectors from the OPCW do an extremely important and difficult job." At the start of his speech Jagland paid tribute to the late Nelson Mandela, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with F.W. de Klerk in 1993.

The Nobel awards in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and economics were set to be presented in Stockholm later Tuesday.

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